The city of San Diego had no problem recently naming a street after legendary San Francisco Supervisor and gay activist Harvey Milk. But debate is getting a bit more vigorous when it comes to San Francisco naming a Navy ship after the gay hero.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Supervisor Christina Olague says that Milk, though he served as a Navy officer in the Korean War, was a pacifist who was “against the Vietnam War and war in general.”
Olague wants to get a national holiday named for him, which seems a bit of a more difficult proposition but is definitely doable, seeing as fellow assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was honored with one in 1986.
Scott Wiener, another Supervisor, argued that the ship naming was fitting in the wake of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal: “I cannot think of a more fitting way to honor that repeal than to name a ship after an LGBT civil rights icon who was also a Navy vet.”
How about we take this to the next level?
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The proposal passed committee in a 2-1 vote, and heads to a full vote before the City board next week.
I think we can honor Harvey’s memory with the U.S.S. Milk and push for a national holiday at the same time, don’t you?
Photo via Daniel Nicoletta
Victor
I don’t agree with you on that one. If Milk really was a pacifist, naming a warship after him would be a very bad idea. Because it basicly says, that we ignore what a person as a whole stood for and just reduce him on being a gay activist. I like the idea of the national holiday, like HM-Day, more.
DouggSeven
@Victor: I don’t know if he was that great of a politician on a national level to qualify a national holiday though.
JAW
Victor is correct… he protested the war etc… was def a pacifist… name a bridge after him
JAB
“…served during the Korean War…” Being a pacifist is not being unpatriotic. History has taught us all, and recently, that war is not always fought from the motivation of moral righteousness.
Mr Milk did fight for the rights of people that were being not only denied but marginalized to the point of prison and/or hospitalization.
If not a holiday then a ship would be an appropriate honor for a Navy Officer.
Joseph
Harvey was proud of his Navy service: he was wearing his Navy belt buckle when he was assassinated. He was a diver who served on submarine rescue ships; perhaps the Navy could name a smilar type of ship after him, rather than a carrier or destroyer.
Butt Poofer
I wanna sign up and serve the Navy as a human butt plug!!